Consultation on Ike

Do you think a man who has suffered a heart attack can be regarded as physically able to serve a term as President?

Based on what you have read about the nature of the President's illness, and assuming a normal convalescence in the next few months, do you think Mr. Eisenhower can be regarded as physically able to serve a second term?

These questions were contained in a circular sent to 470 U.S. heart specialists by an organization called the American Research Foundation of Princeton, N.J. Last week the American Medical Association indignantly advised doctors what to do with the questionnaires: throw them in the wastebasket, "to prevent the hysteria that such information could foment."

Warned the A.M.A. in its weekly Journal: "If physicians answer them, the information could be used in almost any way to the disadvantage of the profession." The American Research Foundation turned out to be an affiliate of Benson and Benson Inc. of Princeton, a market opinion and consumer research organization. Benson and Benson said it had mailed the questionnaires for a client, but declined to identify him.

Not all heart specialists are as reticent as the A.M.A. wants them to be. Boston's Dr. Paul Dudley White, who has furnished detailed diagnostic descriptions of the President's condition, is on record as saying: "If the President has a good recovery ... I would have no objection whatsoever to his running again."

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